Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Re: Collecting on a small claims case

Make sure the defendant has notice of the judgment in your favor. He will certainly try to get his insurance company to pay you. It is important to wait the thirty days, inasmuch as that is the period one has to appeal a Small Claims award. You must wait until the judgment is final to attempt collection. You then can have a writ of execution issued and atttempt to have the Sheriff serve it on a bank account, or other assets, if any, but clearly you can also contact the insurance company yourself, as the third party beneficiary of the policy of insurance. The one difficulty here, however, is that the defendant(insured) has a duty of cooperation to his company and if he did not notify them of the pending Small Claims matter, they may deny coverage. You will have to file another lawsuit, against them. Your most direct collection procedure is to go contact the insurer, and find out if they will pay. If not, you can go after the writ of execution, the issuance of which, just may induce the defendant to pay the judgment.